SHILLONG, May 24: Five tea stalls in Polo and Fourth Furlong area are facing the music for not maintaining hygiene.
Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety, DBS Mukhim on Wednesday issued a temporary closure order after she had inspected them along with the staff of Shillong Municipal Board.
The five stalls are Laxmi Mistan Bhandar, Meghalaya Mistan Bhandar, Vishal Sweet, Jalpan Sweets and K Sweet. The magistrate had closed them down on Tuesday following an inspection by the members of Khasi Students’ Union, Shillong Mihngi Circle.
Mukhim told reporters the stalls were found to be not maintaining hygiene and sanitation. She said the way they were preparing food posed a great threat to the safety and health of consumers.
According to her, the fact that waste matters were not treated and directly released into streams was a very serious issue.
“I have issued a temporary closure order. I will soon issue a proper order mentioning all that which needs to be corrected by these stalls,” Mukhim said.
Not only the utensils were unclean, raw materials, oil and fats used by the stalls were also not properly stored, she said. Only one of the five stalls has a hand washing station, she added.
The Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety said the stalls could not produce medical checkup certificates of their employees.
She further said that four of the five stalls do not have a valid licence which is in violation of section 31 (i) of the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2016 and an offence. There are no proper toilets for the staff, no pest control and they are using domestic cylinders for cooking, she added.
